AIRPORTS Modernize With Huge Clocks (Mar, 1933)

Yes, giant analog clocks are the very picture of modernity. Without these, how could an aviator ever tell what time it was?

AIRPORTS Modernize With Huge Clocks

FROM the dusty tarmacs of yesteryear, where gophers dodged and the meadow-lark sprang affrighted from the thunder of old Jennies, down to the tiled airfields of today is a far cry. And a big advance to be made in so few years.

Here is a photo which graphically and dramatically depicts what a huge change has come about in aviation. Heston airport, the municipal airport of the City of London, where all the cross channel European planes check in and out, has installed a huge clock so that incoming or passing planes may see immediately their time of arrival.

The clock is built at the confluence of the tarmac and the hangar apron, and is 20 feet in diameter. It can be seen from 1500 feet. Note the tiled apron hangar. The clock is driven by an electric motor, synchronized in same way as a household electric clock.

Before this they had a guy with a big megaphone standing on the tarmac shouting out the time every 5 minutes.

bob says: October 7, 20081:44 pm

My my Mr. Jones … what a huge clock you have there … may I touch it?

John M. Hanna says: October 7, 20087:54 pm

“Hello ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. We are arriving now in London. The temperature is 70 degrees and the time is… (banks plane hard to the left, throwing passengers, stewards and luggage around the cabin)…1.50 P.M. Thank you for flying with us.”

Torgo says: October 7, 20088:51 pm

It shows you how basic airports were that this was considered modernization.